Brain Drain In Nigeria, Who Is To Blame?

Just fews days ago in one of the radio stations in Lagos there was this guy who was talking about um, when you buy designers like Gucci, the money goes to Italy, and when you buy good cars like um Toyota the money goes to Japan, he now further said that he has about three million naira in his account and he wants to get some made in Nigeria. I sat down i thought this through and i just could not figure it out.

But this doesnt mean we do not have scientists in Nigeria, i mean born and fed in Niga, this just makes me want to ask you my fello Nigerians this little Question,

Of the whole 150 million Nigerians, those that are to blame for the brain drain cannot be up to 5 million. Wow, can you imagine that? I am thinking of those people, so called leaders, who have - for so many years - brought us to where we are now.

I am an a memeber of staff in a university in the UK and in the course of attending conferences and training programms internationally, i have met many Nigerian lecturers, scientists and researchers. When you ask them why they are not in Nigeria, it all comes down to the same reasons. Facilities, opportunities for advancement, living conditions, peace of mind (which more than half consider the most important). If i am asked the same question, i would say the same thing. It all comes down to the quality of life some people desire.

Not everyone is cut out for the hustle and bustle of working in banks and companies and in the private sector. some people just want to work in educational or research institutions. They want to read, write, research and teach. When the opportunities are not there, they will always find other places where they will get those opportunities.

The main problem however is the fact of the existence of poverty and insecurity of means of sustenance - many people dont get the basics of life easily. If people are unsure of getting life's basics, they'll be too devoted to getting life's basics and so will not progress beyond that level to start thinking bigger and thinking of great achievements.

If the government finds a way of distributing wealth such that most people dont have to think about what to eat the next day, lots of people will become achievers.

We the people are the problem. Nigerians are recorded, according to some, as the most educated world over, meaning we have Scientists, Engineers etc a-million. We have them all and many of them live within those borders. However, the question is how many of them are applying their skills and actually willing to educate themselves beyond college so they can achieve even more? How passionate are they in the field they are in? What good is it having a doctor who does not really care to update his skill set to compete with the rest of the world but is more concerned about how much profit his retail stores are bringing in for him at the end of the week/month? What good is it having an engineer who is more content with clocking in and out at his job than he is actually applying himself and doing his very best where he is?

We can blame it on brain drain or whatever, but the truth is that at the root of it all is the fact that we the people are not as passionate as we ought to be in the fields we find ourselves.

Take a roll call and you will find that that country has so many more doctors than most countries can boast of today; that country has so many more scientists, engineers, lawyers, programmers etc than most other countries can, percentage-wise.

The truth is we s a people have failed at almost every thing wew have collectively ventures into. The GOVERNMENT AND THE RELIGIOUS Leaders are the most culpable. It should not suprise anyone that we as a people are where we are, nobody believes in Nigeria that's why your leaders act the way they do.